If — By Rudyard Kipling


If you can keep your head when all about you   
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;   
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;   
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Optimists Without Borders / Optimistan, State of Consciousness
posted by Dan Low


A Word from the President


Dear Optimist Friends in all countries,

It is with immense pride that I take up position as President of Optimists Without Borders, a position entrusted to me by our Board of Directors for the next two years. We are a worldwide organization of people who embody the spirit of optimism so necessary in these times of great uncertainty. Times of great uncertainty also open up the possibility of real hope for change for the better. We optimists know that we can make this happen.

Victor Hugo wrote, “Nothing can ever stop an idea whose time has come”. Consider how optimism has become just such a powerful idea over the centuries and against all odds. When an idea like this is shared by everyone, it becomes so forceful as really to be capable of changing the world.

Optimists, by definition, have no frontiers. But can the optimism of a few – scattered in the four corners of the world – alone change the world for the benefit of all? Well, it can at least shake habits of thought, and begin to move minds and hearts, so that one day attitudes and behaviors actually do shift.

Why? Because optimism is a state of mind which offers the luxury of also being a state of consciousness. It is a lifestyle, a way of being and sharing with other men and women in a changing and essentially unpredictable world – but a world which presents so many opportunities. Optimists are above all enthusiastic activists, sort of “living compasses” ever directed towards improving men as they are and the world as it should be.

Being an optimist without borders means looking at reality in a positive way. This does not mean taking a benign view. Rather, it means to challenge reality by always searching for improvement, optimizing strengths and resources, inventing ever more innovative solutions. And always having the courage to gamble on the best in each of us.

Being an optimist without frontiers is to believe in all those we come across. It is to believe in their competence, their potential, their friendship, their love. This judgment risks error. But that does not mean that the optimist is wrong to believe in the best in all of us. To refuse to believe this is to play into the hands of skepticism and pessimism. This is life without hope. Most optimists prefer to live fully and make gigantic mistakes, rather than never to make a mistake for fear being wrong!

Yes, let us say it loud and clear. There is happiness to being an optimistic. We communicate energy, openness and a positive view. We see all the possibilities in the world no matter the circumstances. To live one day as an optimist is to experience a wonderful day. Nothing compares to a day when we have communicated optimism to someone close to us, be they a relative, friend, colleague or collaborator of any kind.

We are all responsible for our own world view and our view of others – those we love, those we teach or mentor, as we accompany each other along the path of life. If there is specific meaning to our lives, perhaps it is this which is the most basic. Young or old, rich or poor, powerful or small, strong or weak, every optimist should be the one who, against the winds of fortune and seas of destiny, has kept the flame going.

We, optimists without borders, speak here of the only flame which really matters: the one whose memory will outlive us, the one we call heart felt enthusiasm, unwavering confidence in real life, love of others as they are, or hope for the worlds to come.

Philippe Gabilliet, President of Optimists Without Borders
http://owb.optimistan.org/en/mot-de-la-presidente/